Senate defeats Obama in Justice nod

The nominee inserted his office in an effort to turn reality on its head, impugn honorable and selfless law enforcement officers, and glorify an unrepentant cop killer.—Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky

President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was rejected by Senate Democrats on March 5, the New York Times reported.

It was a 47-52 vote in which seven Democrats “abandoned” their leadership and evaded pressure from the White House.

The New York Times reported that Obama’s nominee, Debo P. Adegbile, was the litigation director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund when it represented Mumia Abu-Jamal who brutally murdered a Philadelphia police officer more than a decade ago.

The Senate decided that being a lawyer disqualifies nominees from garnering a legal post, according to the Huffington Post.

“The U.S. Senate is now judging attorneys based on their representation of politically unpopular clients,” the article said. In other words, the Senate decided that Adegbile was guilty by association.

The editorial said Obama called the vote a “travesty” and that Adegbile “was defeated solely based on his legal representation of a defendant.”

But “Mr. Obama knows that Abu Jamal was not just any client, but a killer whose guilt was never in doubt,” the editorial states. “The president should have been aware of the politics in his appointment.”

This was the first time a Democrat nominee was defeated since lawmakers changed Senate rules to make it easier to push through judges and executive branch candidates, The Hill reported.

"The nominee inserted his office in an effort to turn reality on its head, impugn honorable and selfless law enforcement officers, and glorify an unrepentant cop killer,” The Hill quoted McConnell as saying. “This is not required by our legal system. On the contrary, it is noxious to it.”

Erik Raymond is experienced in national and international politics. He relocated from the Middle East where he was working on his second novel. He produces content for DeseretNews.com. You can reach him at: